Christmas Spirit - Energy Saving style

So we did the Christmas thing last weekend and hung some lights across the front of the house.

Our neighbours across the road decided to do the same so they got a bit of festoon (you know the lamp holders with the light bulbs you loop around the veranda) and put them up. now every year they have nice 40w coloured lamps, but not this year- oh no.

This year they replaced them all with 10w Compact Flouro lamps. When we look out the windows it is now daylight across the road and halfway down the street.

Now I am all for energy saving (upto a point) but it kinda ruins the mood when it gives you retina burn.

Chicken or Egg ?? Coles knows

I got a cooked chook from Coles the other day and noticed the most bizarre label on the back of the bag. Now I've written abbout bizarre labellling on packages before, but this takes the biscuit.



May contain traces of egg due to shared equipment ? I guess one ends the neck end and the other is where the eggs come out....

Now I know it actually means that the handling equioment or production plant also handles egg products as some people are allergic to eggs but not chicken. But it made me laugh on first reading.

Being bad to make the kids be good

So its the time of the year when you can use the 'Santas watching' excuse to its maximum effect.

I came up with the best scam the other day. The wifes parents were visiting and my 5yr old was being a right stroppy little bugger.

I have a work phone - a Nokia - that can be set to announce the name of the caller that it finds in the address book. I added the mother-in-laws mobile number with the name Santa Claus.

I got the wife to call from the other room and made sure the little girl heard it announce Santa calling. I made sure to tell him how naughty the little girl was and that he will need to keep an eye on her over the next couple of weeks to see if she should get her presents.

Is that using technologyy for evil ? maybe, but she was good for the rest of the night....

Audio from my youth

So I was playing with my SqueezeBox media player today (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/wireless_music_systems/devices/881&cl=au,en) (nice short URL there, Logitech).

One of the options is to listen to ShoutCast streaming media servers anywhere in the world. So I am having a scan through what is available and the option for C-64 as a Genre comes up. Intrigued I follow it and end up on a station called Radio Paralax which features remixes of tracks that were originally produced on a Commodore 64 either as part of games or demos of the C-64s SID sound chip.

Basically they have taken the tracks and done studio remixes to them. Most are in the dance / easy trance area.

And let me tell you it was retro-nostalgia-tastic. I did a bit of googling for some of the tracks I liked and came across whole websites dedicated to the C64 remix culture and it has a massive underground following.

This is why I love the streaming media feature on the Squeezebox - you'll always find something new and different.

The best of the remixes stuff can be found at http://www.remix64.com/.

Our meal out

Last weekend we decided to go out for dinner to the local Thai place. The house was a mess, there was 4 loads of washing to sort, fold and iron and the kids took great delight in unfolding and pulling off the lounge anything you tried to tidy up or fold.

So we were out the front loading kids into strollers. Our neighbour (not the one with the bloody dogs, but the nice Indian guy on the other side) was chatting to the wife while I went back in to get socks or hat or some such crap. I come back out and find our neighbour has offered to cook us dinner !

About 10 mins later a fantastic Indian meal in take away containers is delivered by his kids, so we sit out the back and have the most fabulous meal out the back.

I've never had a neighbour cook me a meal before. It was quite a bizarre experience, but it was the best take away style meal I have had in some time !!

Had a laugh on the way to work

Drove past a building site which is going to be home for a new ABC Learning centre, only someone had scraped off the vinyl letter at the start of the second line so it now read "New Home of ABC earning".

ha ha ha
Tried to take a photo but my stupid camera phone seems to want to look at things for 4 minutes before it decides to take a picture.

New toys

So we are off on our bi-annual overseas holiday. Normally I would take a work laptop, but its a big dell D series and I really can't be arse carting throuout Europe. I am also worried about getting it lost or stollen.

I have an older Dell that I considered taking, but its still a 15" bemoth.

So I thought I'd try something different and went out and bought a 9" Acer EEE. Its rare that I get excited about a piece of technology for more than a little while anymore. This laptop has had me excited for over a week, and I just love it more each time I use it.

Its the size of a sheet of A5 paper and abbout 50mm thick. The keyboards a bit small, but its great for lying in bed blogging (no I'm not right now...)

Ahh, tecnology to improve our lifes - isn't that what it's all about ??

Even the wife loves it. Might need to get another one just for her..

Motivational Ads

Well now the olympics are on we have a new generation of TV ads to deal with - the olympic Motivational Ads, or as I have christened them the Olympi-vational.

You know the type of things - help our athletes by buying milk for $1.29 a litre, or we support the mums who support the kids that are crap at sport so one day they can be the failed people who watch their friends who were good at sport competing in the Olympics on telly.

How do we feel good about ourselves the rest of the year with out these ads?

I might have to go and eat some chinese from Red Rooster (although they are not affiliated with the games or China - it says so in small print in the ad - so I guess they are just cashing in ??)

Modern Manners

There is a guy in our office. Lets call him Dave. He always seem to have whatever cold or bug is going around and coughing. The thing that really bothers me is that he never puts his hand over his mouth when he coughs.

Even my 5yr old can do it, so why can't he. Now I don't mind the odd out in the open cough - but I'll always put my hand over my mouth when close to people, but Dave won't even do it when standing next to you.

Poos me to tears. I am blaming him for making me sick.

Real fresh Organic fruit !

So we are on this Organic thing at the moment. We have a local company that you can buy $35 boxes of mixed fruit and veg and it gets delivered to your door. Now this stuff is fresh (and certified Organic), but over the weekend we found just how fresh and free of pesticides it really is.

My 5yr old likes to go to the fruit bowl and help herself to what ever is in there. I was in the shed working on a repair when I heard a big scream. I went outside to investigate to find the Mrs with the fruit bowl covered in a tea towel. WTF I thought. Turns out a little visitor had hitched a ride on some bananas. A little green frog.

So of course I got the job of using a stick to get it out the bowl and set it free in the garden.

So if you hear of some frog plauge taking over Sydney it wasn't me....

everything will kill you (eventually)

Found this today - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/7490202.stm - Tofu is now bad for you.

and apparently brocolli stops altzeimers. Last week it was chocolate or wine or something else.

Bloody hell. I'm not going to open the paper anymore as everything is either really bad or really good. Then every few months the tables are turned and its back to being really good and really bad.

We're all going to hell in a handbasket so I'll eat what I bloody like. I have a tinfoil hat to stop altzeimers - no wait didn't they say Aluminium can cause it....

life is like.....

How come the pack of lollies behind the one you just bought in the vending machine always looks like a better selection than the one you got?

Freaky things people do in their cars

So I am waiting at a set of traffic lights this morning and I look in the rear view mirror to see the chick in the car behind me using a set of Eyelash curlers. Why would you do that in rush hour traffic.
Why ?

New Camry Model

So I was driving to work this morning when I noticed a Camry parked on a foot path and half blocking a junction. Having a closer look it was a model I had never seen before - a Camry Intrigue. Oh yes as there is nothing more intriging to me that the actions of a camry driver.

I look forward to the release of the Camry No-Indicator and Camry Can't-use-mirrors models in the near future.

Irony or Karma

Well here I am in an interesting paradox. I spend my life bashing a certain brand and model of motor car and harping on about how everyone should be greener, and then what happens?

THIS !!
There is a deal in the pipeline to build Toyota Hybrids in Australia. The model chosen. Camry. Nooooooooooooooooo !

I wonder if they come with a driver education program?